


Washed ashore

by Maybeitsspidey



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hurt Peter Parker, M/M, Merperson Peter Parker, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mild Language, Peter Parker Whump, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark-centric, mermaid au, no smut sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:55:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24954904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maybeitsspidey/pseuds/Maybeitsspidey
Summary: Tony finds an injured merman on the beach by his Malibu home.
Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark
Comments: 6
Kudos: 96





	Washed ashore

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LisaFQueen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LisaFQueen/gifts).



> Just a little Drabble that I wrote up when I was inspired by the moodboard linked below. Dedicated to my awesome beta, thanks for all your help helping me edit this fic. 
> 
> Based on this moodboard on tumblr: 
> 
> https://starker-sorbet.tumblr.com/post/618861281623048192/tony-finding-an-injured-merman-on-the-beach-by-his

What. In the actual _fuck_.

The words keep repeating in Tony’s mind over and over again, the sight in front of him so insane, so _unbelievable_ , he can’t even attempt to wrap his head around it.

There’s a kid, no, a young _man_ , he’s definitely not a kid judging by those sculpted abs, laying on the sand in front of him, half out of the water and seemingly passed out.

A wet clump of chestnut curls stick to his forehead, barely covering a large gash over his eyebrow, splotchy bruises surrounding it and spreading all the way down to his torso.

The boy doesn’t look that old, maybe 17 or so, and his cheeks are littered with small freckles, mapping out across his nose like stars in the night sky.

He’s incredibly beautiful, even in the condition that he’s in, and Tony can’t tell if it’s his high, Greek-godlike cheekbones that he can’t rip his gaze off of, or his incredible tail.

So yeah, apparently he has one of those. The length shines a brilliant red and blue, the scales almost looking iridescent in the fading light of the sunset. Another small, but deeper cut on the middle of it slowly leaks blood, a tiny amount running down and staining the sand underneath him.

This is absolutely insane.

Go on a vacation, the other avengers had said. He looked like he needed it apparently, as Natasha dared to so smugly point out. According to her, looking like you're dying is cause for a getaway, but this doesn’t feel much like the relaxing time they had all promised him he would have.

It was supposed to be a week-long, no-business (AKA no Iron Man) trip to somewhere in the south, Jamaica or something similar if he can remember correctly, but he decided last minute to go to his rebuilt Malibu home instead.

He wasn’t fond of the idea of some tourist-filled island anyway, especially when he knew he would just spend the whole time there drunk, thinking of new upgrades for his suit and wishing he was home to tinker in his lab instead.

So, the Malibu home it is. The house still smells a little like fresh paint and plaster, which isn’t exactly homey, but it’s an avenger-free zone, so he’ll take it.

Of course the moment he leaves the house for five minutes to get some fresh air, and maybe a glass of some way too expensive scotch, he stumbles across something that isn’t even supposed to be _real_. On his private beach, nonetheless.

What are the chances? For a second Tony wonders if maybe the other Avengers are fucking with him, but not even an idiot like Clint could come up with something so _realistic_ , even if he had help from the rest of the team.

Tony sighs, bending down to get a closer look at the boy and his injuries, tapping his sunglasses to activate F.R.I.D.A.Y.

“Hey, girl. What’s his stats like?” he questions, reaching out to push a sweaty curl off the boys forehead, stopping before he touches him and letting his hand fall back down to rest on his thigh.

“Not good, boss. I’m not sure what he is exactly, but I can detect he is part human at least. He has a temperature of 100 degrees and his lesions appear to be rather severe. I suggest you take him back up to the lab and try to help him, Sir.”

Ah, yes. The very thing he was worried she would say.

Tony groans as he bends down, grabbing the kid under his armpits as he attempts to lift him up into his arms. He’s a lot heavier then he looks, and by a lot, Tony means extremely. His tail itself must weigh at least 20 pounds, if not more, and his back aches with the effort of trying to lift him.

Well, that’s definitely not happening.

Straightening his back and choosing to ignore the way it pops, Tony laughs in disbelief at the situation he’s managed to find himself in.

“Fri, be a doll and send me a suit.”

* * *

  
The lab is cold when he lands in it, the way he usually likes it, but after placing the boy on a workbench and stepping out of the suit, he can’t help but shiver, turning the heat up to keep the boy’s temperature at a good place.

“Fri, I want a full body scan done and diagnostics set up. Get me a basic understanding of what he is and what he needs. And for the love of god, if anyone comes looking for me, don't let them in unless I tell you to,” Tony tells her, stepping back to look over him.

His chest is rising steadily, which is hopefully a good sign, but his face is still very pale, a sickly shade of white that worries Tony way more than it should for someone he’s only sort of not really just met.

FRIDAY speaks up then, Tony waiting anxiously to hear what she’ll have to say.

“Sir, I ran full tests. He doesn’t have any internal injuries in his lower body, and the contusion on his appendage appears to be healing itself somehow. As for the injuries to his head, I detect a chance of a slight concussion, but the injury there is also fixing itself. I recommend setting him up on an IV and giving him some basic medications,” she says in her Irish lilt, Tony gawking at the ceiling, wide eyed in disbelief.

“Healing itself? How in the hell is that even possible?” he asks, rubbing his temple with his fingers.

“I don’t fully understand his biology, Sir. There’s some sort of mutation in his body that allows for the healing to take place, but I’m not able to tell if he was born with it or if it happened later in his life.”

“Alright. Thanks, Fri,” he sighs, moving to go into the medical supply room.

“Oh, and Sir. One more thing,” she pipes up, Tony looking up to the ceiling in curiosity.

“I searched through all available data and couldn’t find anything on his species. Only stories of possible sightings and folklore from centuries ago. Not even anything from the government. He simply isn’t supposed to exist,” she finishes, sounding a bit exasperated, if she can even have that tone.

Tony frowns, leaning his forehead against the bars of the shelf in front of him for a moment as he tries to process. Not supposed to exist? Of course not, but neither were _aliens_ before they came and attacked New York.

What a day.

Moving to the other side of the room to grab an IV stand, he hooks a bag onto it, wheeling it back into the lab.

The mermaid (merman? What is he supposed to call him?) is still passed out on the table, unsurprisingly, but his tail, just like his face, is now looking paler, the red and blue scales looking dull under the fluorescent lights.

After carefully putting the IV needle in the boys hand, Tony reaches his hand out, sucking a breath in as he places his palm flat against the scales on his tail.

He really, _really_ shouldn’t be doing this, but he’s Tony Stark and a man of science, so he needs to get closer to try and understand what he is. Also, he’s never really been one to deny himself of something when it’s so beautiful.

The scales are warm, more than he thought they would be, and smooth to the touch, similar to a fish in texture, but shinier. They glint under the lights, turning almost rainbow when it hits the length a certain way.

Tony forces himself to pull away, instead alternating his gaze between the report of his health on the screen next to him and the boy's face, unable to look away. He’s unlike anything he’s ever seen, and Tony can’t help but stare at the boy, wondering where the hell he came from.

When he tries to stifle a yawn, another one comes behind it, his eyes trying to close against his own will.

“Fri?” He whispers, even though he knows he won’t wake the boy, “Wake me if anything changes. Even if his blood levels rise a tiny bit.”

Deciding to close his eyes for just a second to catch up on the sleep he lost being in the lab last night, he makes himself slouch back onto his couch, pointedly ignoring his liquor cabinet in the corner as he falls asleep.

* * *

  
When Tony jolts awake a couple hours later, there’s someone yelling, and it takes him a second to blink away the sleep in his eyes and realize that it’s FRIDAY, yelling at him frantically to wake up. When he looks across the room, he realizes why.

The boy is on the ground now, gripping his head, apparently having fallen off the table in his haste to get away. The wire from the IV is laying on the table where he ripped out, but Tony isn’t looking at that, nor anything else.

The only thing he can focus on is the fact that the boy's tail is _gone_ , replaced instead with long, slender, and impossibly tan legs.

This is clearly the first time he’s had the things, as he can’t stop looking down at them terrified, not sure what to do with them as he moves around uselessly.

He attempts to stand once, but gives up when his legs only shake from the effort, nearly giving out and toppling him over the table full of parts that he was gripping onto.

His wide bambi-eyes keep switching between his legs and scanning around the room in disbelief, taking in all the Iron Man suits and machines, gasping when he hears FRIDAY come back over the speakers, calling for Tony once again.

“Sir, the boy is awake and appears to be in a state of distress. I suggest you help him before he injures himself further.”

The merman doesn’t seem too concerned about himself, but rather where FRIDAY‘s voice is coming from, scared eyes scanning around to see if he can spot her.

“FRIDAY, mute,” Tony instructs the A.I, seeing that her voice is freaking the boy out.

The merman’s head whips around to look at him as he yelps, staring over at him in fear as he attempts to scoot his way across the floor and away from Tony, legs not getting him anywhere.

Tony watches, unsure of what exactly he should do, and it isn’t until he notices the boy’s wound bleeding again that he stands up, not thinking when he rushes towards him.

“Please, no! Please, don’t hurt me!” the boy squeaks in a sweet voice, making Tony halt in his place. He’s clearly scared out of his mind as he cowers away from him, shrinking into the ground.

“ _Hurt_ you? Why- why would I- kid, I’m not going to hurt you. I was going to help you, actually. I think you have a concussion, and besides that you're also injured pretty badly,” he points out, the boy's eyes falling down to the ripped open gash on top of his small, muscular thigh.

Tony’s eyes follow the movement, ripping his gaze back up to the ceiling once he realizes the boy is in fact very naked.

The mermaid gulps, curls rustling as he shakes his head, groaning afterwards. “It's nothing! Please, I’ll be fine! It always fixes itself in the end anyway. It was just some stupid-“ he cuts himself off, not wanting to give away any information about his home to the human.

“What? What was it?” Tony urges.

The boy flinches at his tone, hugging his arms to himself. “I- I can’t tell you,” he says, sagging listlessly against the wall behind him.

Tony sighs, rubbing his chin in thought.

“I get you don’t want to tell me where you came from, or even anything about you in general, and I know it’s hard to trust the word of someone you just kind of met, but all I want to do is make sure you’re okay. I know you said things like that usually heal on their own, but it would go a lot faster if you let me help you.”

The boy just stares at him, not answering as he looks at Tony with a mix of curiosity and agitation.

“Why? You don’t know me, and I’m not exactly a normal human. Shouldn’t you be calling scientists or something?” he quizzes, furrowing his brow.

“Jesus, kid, I don’t know what you know about humans, but we aren’t all monsters. I’m not gonna force you to do anything. You can leave right now if you really want to, I’ll even help you, but I don’t think that’s the best idea.”

The merman nods, understanding what Tony is saying as he looks at him, even if he still doesn’t know if he can trust him.

“How do I know I can trust you?” The boy asks, staring up at Tony in wariness.

“You don’t, not really. All you can do is take my word.”

He still seems unsure of him, understandably, so Tony decides to try something different.

“Look, we don’t know each other and you clearly don’t trust me under the circumstances, so why don’t we just start from the beginning? No commitment, no tricks, no anything.”

Crouching to meet the boy at eye level, the man sticks his hand out. “Hi, I’m Tony Stark.”

The boy eyes him, still looking like he wants to get away, but he must see something in Tony’s eyes, because he sighs, slowly reaching forward to place his hand in Tony’s.

“I’m... Peter. Peter Parker,” he hesitates, giving his full name at the last second, hand warm when Tony grips it.

“Great. Nice to meet you, Peter Parker. Now, let’s get you fixed up and maybe find you some clothes.”

He smiles, the boy hesitantly returning a tiny one as Tony drags him up to his feet, looping an arm around his waist to keep him upright. That’s a start.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> You can follow me on Tumblr, @Maybeitsspidey.


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